The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Taskforce Sunday, November 8, 2020, through the Head of Public Affairs of the task force, Taofiq Adebayo, issued a seven-day quit notice to residents of the shanties at Fagba on Abbatior Road in Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos – claiming that the illegal structures were home to hoodlums who had destroyed property in the area during the #EndSARS protest.

The estimated number of shanties involved is said to be over 2,500 including shops, so we can imagine the number of people that would be rendered homeless. But, using such excuses as an increased crime rate to displace residents without providing alternatives has become a norm in Lagos – this being just another example.

We will recall in 2017, how the special security task force’s action forced residents of the Otodo Gbame community to flee by boat, triggering outcries by the human rights community. Pictures of fleeing residents packing their belongings on canoes on the lagoon sparked criticism amid allegations of security forces using deadly force. 

And, we all know that actions like this only term to escalate the issue not reduce it; when you consider that the evicted residents are people living in extreme poverty and may resort to extreme measures to survive.

In their effort to fight crime and make the society a safer place to live in, the government needs to consider other options that may be more effective, instead of kicking people who are struggling to make ends meet into the streets and making them homeless.

Without doubt, when they are rendered homeless, their problems are aggravated, and they may consider taking to crime as their means of livelihood while the problem the government is trying to contain spirals out of control.

A more effective way to address the problem would be to educate and empower the so-called hoodlums through skill acquisition programmes, thereby, opening them up to new and better opportunities that will make them more responsible members of the society with a good source of livelihood.